05-19-2024, 11:51 AM
Israel’s Wartime Government Frays as Frustration with Netanyahu Grows
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/18/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-war-netanyahu-gantz.html
Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s war cabinet, presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an ultimatum on Saturday, saying he would leave the government if it did not soon develop a plan for the future of the war in Gaza.
While Mr. Gantz’s departure would not topple the country’s emergency wartime government, the move would further strain a fragile coalition that has provided Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right government with a boost of international legitimacy, and it would make the prime minister even more reliant on his hard-line partners.
“If you choose the path of zealots, dragging the country into the abyss, we will be forced to leave the government,” Mr. Gantz said in a televised news conference. “We will turn to the people and build a government that will earn the people’s trust.”...[/size][/color]
Mr. Gantz’s ultimatum was the latest sign of pressure building on Mr. Netanyahu to develop a postwar plan. The prime minister is increasingly being squeezed — externally from Israel’s closest ally, the United States, and from within his own War Cabinet — to clarify a strategy for Gaza. Just days earlier, Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said the government was charting “a dangerous course” and demanded that Mr. Netanyahu immediately pledge not to establish an Israeli military government in Gaza.
Fearing disaster for Israel, Gantz issues an ultimatum, but he doesn’t have the votes
https://www.timesofisrael.com/fearing-disaster-for-israel-gantz-issues-an-ultimatum-but-he-doesnt-have-the-votes/
The State of Israel is “heading for the rocks,” war cabinet minister Benny Gantz told the nation on Saturday.
A small minority of “zealots” has taken the helm, Gantz warned.
And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, once “a leader and an Israeli patriot,” has enabled them to do so, putting his personal and political interests ahead of the existential needs of the state, Gantz charged.
The National Unity party leader, a former IDF chief of staff who failed repeatedly in recent years to unseat Netanyahu at the ballot box, joined forces with him in an emergency war coalition days after Hamas’s devastating invasion and slaughter in southern Israel on October 7. But the benefits of that partnership — including a genuine spirit of unity and the initial avoidance of mistakes in the subsequent, ongoing war against Hamas — have long since dissipated, said Gantz. And now Netanyahu is failing to carry out the “acts of leadership needed to guarantee victory.”...
Gantz knows all this. He knows that Netanyahu can simply ignore his ultimatum, and continue to favor the far-right and the ultra-Orthodox parties.
And thus for all the earnest sincerity and urgency with which he delivered his ultimatum, and his genuine fears for the destiny of the nation — an Israel that is deeply embroiled in Gaza with its hostages still in Hamas hands, that is facing escalation with Hezbollah across the northern border, and that is hemorrhaging global empathy and partial support in almost every sphere — he gave Netanyahu three full weeks to try to sort things out. Otherwise, “we will be forced to leave the government,” he said, with as much conviction as he could muster.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/18/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-war-netanyahu-gantz.html
Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s war cabinet, presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an ultimatum on Saturday, saying he would leave the government if it did not soon develop a plan for the future of the war in Gaza.
While Mr. Gantz’s departure would not topple the country’s emergency wartime government, the move would further strain a fragile coalition that has provided Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right government with a boost of international legitimacy, and it would make the prime minister even more reliant on his hard-line partners.
“If you choose the path of zealots, dragging the country into the abyss, we will be forced to leave the government,” Mr. Gantz said in a televised news conference. “We will turn to the people and build a government that will earn the people’s trust.”...[/size][/color]
Mr. Gantz’s ultimatum was the latest sign of pressure building on Mr. Netanyahu to develop a postwar plan. The prime minister is increasingly being squeezed — externally from Israel’s closest ally, the United States, and from within his own War Cabinet — to clarify a strategy for Gaza. Just days earlier, Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said the government was charting “a dangerous course” and demanded that Mr. Netanyahu immediately pledge not to establish an Israeli military government in Gaza.
Fearing disaster for Israel, Gantz issues an ultimatum, but he doesn’t have the votes
https://www.timesofisrael.com/fearing-disaster-for-israel-gantz-issues-an-ultimatum-but-he-doesnt-have-the-votes/
The State of Israel is “heading for the rocks,” war cabinet minister Benny Gantz told the nation on Saturday.
A small minority of “zealots” has taken the helm, Gantz warned.
And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, once “a leader and an Israeli patriot,” has enabled them to do so, putting his personal and political interests ahead of the existential needs of the state, Gantz charged.
The National Unity party leader, a former IDF chief of staff who failed repeatedly in recent years to unseat Netanyahu at the ballot box, joined forces with him in an emergency war coalition days after Hamas’s devastating invasion and slaughter in southern Israel on October 7. But the benefits of that partnership — including a genuine spirit of unity and the initial avoidance of mistakes in the subsequent, ongoing war against Hamas — have long since dissipated, said Gantz. And now Netanyahu is failing to carry out the “acts of leadership needed to guarantee victory.”...
Gantz knows all this. He knows that Netanyahu can simply ignore his ultimatum, and continue to favor the far-right and the ultra-Orthodox parties.
And thus for all the earnest sincerity and urgency with which he delivered his ultimatum, and his genuine fears for the destiny of the nation — an Israel that is deeply embroiled in Gaza with its hostages still in Hamas hands, that is facing escalation with Hezbollah across the northern border, and that is hemorrhaging global empathy and partial support in almost every sphere — he gave Netanyahu three full weeks to try to sort things out. Otherwise, “we will be forced to leave the government,” he said, with as much conviction as he could muster.
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
